52 Weeks of Blogging

It has been one year since I started this Haropulos Bailey Consulting blog. Every Monday I have had the self-generated pleasure and pressure of posting original material as a means to share snippets of my business experience, give unsolicited advice, rant, and reflect. This is proving to be an interesting journey for me, which I hope others are enjoying and appreciating as well.

Some fun and interesting tidbits:

• TOTAL PAGE HITS: 1,875
• MOST VISITORS ON A SINGLE DAY: 53
• MOST PAGE LOADS ON A SINGLE DAY: 69
• GLOBAL REACH: 76% of my visitors are from all over the U.S. The other 24% have been from at least 26 other countries, plus Puerto Rico and Guam.
• MOST READ: Highest readership on a single blog entry has been for 10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence.
• MY FAVORITE: Shifting Tides of Communication, because I learned some thought-provoking things from interviews of several 16-20 year olds.
• OBSERVATION: Humor, sarcasm and a catchy title draw readers. (I’m not always that clever.)
• MOST EFFECTIVE PROMOTION: Googling related subjects on high profile web sites and adding my blog link as a comment, offering more information. 
• BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Motivating readers to share their comments and ideas.

Thank you for visiting. Come back soon and often.

Global Economy, Sure - but American Isolationalism?

On a recent European trip, to Italy, Greece, and Turkey, I was impressed with how easy it was to interact with our local hosts and service providers. Most people with whom we came in contact spoke English, many menus had English translations for every item, and English signage made getting around easy. Granted, our travels took us to tourist destinations, where this is not that surprising. But it made me think about how foreign visitors to the U.S. manage in our Anglo-centric culture. Only somewhere between 10 and 25 percent of Americans are able to converse in a second language. In Europe, this same statistic appears to be 50 percent, or slightly more. Multi-lingual signage in big cities appears to be directed more toward our residents from foreign countries than it does to visitors. (At Home Depot in Chicago, they have signs in English, Spanish and Polish.) Service personnel who speak a language in addition to English more often than not do so because they originally came from another country, where that was their first language. Although the United States is a melting pot of many cultures, we still have a somewhat isolationist culture. If we respected, explored, and embraced our diversity more enthusiastically, we would gain a perspective that would serve us better globally – both politically and economically. It’s a big mistake to be so arrogant as to think that our way is the only way. It’s not even always the best way. There are many global issues that should interest us, if for no other reason than they WILL impact our lives in some way in the future. Watch CNN World, BBC World News, or other sources of international news reports. Open your eyes to important stories developing around the globe and think about their impact. Will Turkey be admitted to the European Union? What will be the long term impact of the overvaluation of the Chinese Yuan? How do unemployment rates in the US compare to statistics in other countries? What will happen if democracy doesn’t take hold in Afghanistan? These issues, and many others, should be of more interest to us if we expect to retain a leadership position in the global economy. Education and experience is the answer to addressing our isolationist leanings in the U.S. Study world history and news, travel, learn another language, appreciate foreign music and art of different cultures, and open your eyes and heart to extraordinary experiences. We are part of a great, wide world, and we can’t continue to be successful as a country or as individuals without understanding where we fit in our world culture.